soccer ball in cart

I get back from performing tonight and I noticed a soccer ball in a shopping cart in my neighborhood. so I took a picture of it. I see weird things like this all the time and I want to remember them. but I knew I couldn't spend too much time on it as I needed to go to the bathroom.
   it went well performing, I spoke of things like my boss explaining why he said 'my precious'. and my payout from fringe. and the 'me myself and i' song. or how I learned an office colleague is an ex-new Yorker after sending a postcard to someone else. and what I saw in sauk centre. or how I may have a good match from internet dating for a change. or getting a haircut. and the music I heard at grunge night at the saints game. I liked seeing some people I hadn't seen in a while, one of them was a rapper. I said it would be nice to see another one of his shows. he got a business card once he heard I have a blog. I liked a song he performed tonight that sounded like an auto-bio, about things like what didn't seem fair in his upbringing. but performing was a saving grace. of course I am paraphrasing here. I found it to be relatable.

me myself and i, g-eazy and bebe rexha

recently I heard a song on my car radio that caught my attention, as it spoke about fame. it was 'me myself and i', by g-eazy and bebe rexha. the 'me myself and i' part is sang by bebe, and I liked another line of hers as well- 'music fills me good'. the rap parts were performed by g-eazy. I found many of his lines to be relatable as well, like 'be alone, fake friends' and when he speaks about fame. this would be 'now that i'm famous, everyone knows this lifestyle is dangerous, but I love it the rush is amazing'. the video was found on YouTube, and mostly takes place at a private home, his birthday party, a surprise party. the part with the most profound effect on me was the spoken part, when he is alone in the bathroom and talking to what looks like more than one image of himself in the mirrors. and one of them said 'you signed up for this'. I have had to tell myself this about performing as well, I signed up for all that goes with it- the good and the bad. so I like how two different kinds of music appear in this song, and both of them work for me.
  my normal open-mic tonight was called off, a musician was booked at the venue instead but we were told it will be on again next week. I made the most of it, deciding to get around to some things that had been delayed for too long. one of those was listening to the 'dollop podcast', a fellow comic told me about it and I liked hearing how much of it covered history. I first listened to one about the 'molly maguires', which I recalled from history class as they figured into the history of labor unions in the 19th century. I think this may also have been the name of Pittsburgh's baseball team for a short time in that era as well. the other was about 'ten-cent beer night' at a Cleveland Indians baseball game in 1974, against the texas rangers. it was all right, but hard to keep up with as one of the moderators of the podcast kept making jokes about everything. I am aware that it is done by comedians, but at times it was still a little too much for me. but I still liked how somebody helped me feed my need for history. another notable thing was getting paid for my role in the fringe festival last month. I checked what my account number was from my paypal account but found out I just needed to supply my email account, in my case Hotmail. so I wear it as a 'badge of honor' to have another paid gig, and I did say to the resistable comic, our show runner, that it helped me pass the 'century mark' on my total earnings for performing.
  as expected, it was a long day at work as it was the first day back after the holiday. besides the payoff report I did one pack of contracts, and not many letters. the new titles will wait another day.

short skirt long jacket, cake

on facebook tonight I got the reference on one posting, where there was a pie chart and it was a reference to a song by cake, called 'short skirt long jacket'. I found the video on youtube, it was a fairly short song at two and a half minutes. it shows the band playing outside, and a young lady smiling, but wearing jeans fairly often. at the end of the video she is wearing a short skirt and a long jacket, and is walking in an apartment building while a man is sitting down on the floor. there is talk of cars in the lyrics as well, trading an MG for a white Chrysler lebaron.
   in the afternoon I went to the renaissance festival, and it was nice to see some people I knew out there. I saw the radio personality, and brawler. and of course I did the 'blues brothers moment' with brawler. it reminds me how I have a standing offer to tour a radio studio, hopefully I can find the time soon since I am less busy when the summer is over. I did many of the typical things at ren-fest, such as tour the museum depicting various torture tactics as it is cheap, at $1.25. I had a corn dog, and a bottle of water, and made it to the robin hood show where I know two of the actors in it. one of them I still work with, the other I understand is now a full-time actor. also nice to see the mermaids. I picked up a nickel on the shuttle bus and it was part of what I gave at the mermaid exhibit.
   in the evening after 'big bang theory' I did a long walk around the neighborhood. it yielded the typical finds, plenty of trash which was thrown into a bin at a super-America. I also found 3 pennies, each one at a different place. before going to the festival I liked getting some chores done, such as logging into linkedin for the first time in months. I trimmed my contact list a little, it was necessary. I have done the same thing with facebook and twitter, where I wanted to stress quality, and in some cases I just didn't recognize their names. I did send out some connection requests as well, and I think two have already been accepted, one of them was from the Filipino man. I knew this was a good day to get things crossed off my list. when I was coming back from the festival I stopped at a super-America and got an ice cream sandwich, sparkling water, string cheese, and a pack of nutter butter. I knew this would hold me until I got home.

hype! documentary

this morning , I watched my VHS copy of 'Hype!',  a documentary about the grunge music groups from Seattle in the early 1990s. so attending the recent Saints baseball game, which featured music of the grunge era, continues to influence me. I recall getting this VHS copy when I was living in suburban Chicago from 1998-2004, at a blockbuster video store, it was 'previously viewed'. on the back it says it has a nirvana exclusive, the first-ever performance of 'smells like teen spirit'. other exclusives are with pearl jam- an interview with frontman eddie vedder- and with soundgarden. it does remind me of how I have a VHS collection that has dwindled over the years, where they are junked if I find the same movie on DVD. so it did inspire me to check amazon to see about ordering the DVD copy there, and possibly the movie soundtrack as well. I liked how there was mention of the movie 'singles' in it, I already have it on DVD, and the soundtrack. it also reminded me of having some plaid flannel shirts when I was in college. so this may inspire me to find another one, although it might mean checking what is at secondhand stores. it is hard to say what the biggest takeaway was from seeing it again, although I like documentaries and biographies so it meant the interviews in it I really liked. I recall one interview saying something about 'doing it our own way', so of course that resonated with me.
    this afternoon I performed at the 'donut party', though international falls couldn't make it so we had a sub as the MC, who spoke of delivering for jimmy john's. I did most of my set about my recent travels to new York city, and to sauk centre. then I went home and rested for a while before I went to another show in the evening. school bouncer closed that show and got me another 'snapchat' interview, though I still haven't seen any of them since I haven't joined yet. the group is called 'the brothas', and I was bummed that one of them couldn't make it from Chicago but it was still a good show to attend. some of these performers I don't see that often, like a tall, thin dude who is high-energy, I said I wished I had his energy.
 

sinclair lewis, sauk centre

I made it up to the Sinclair lewis home in sauk centre this afternoon, knowing that time was running out on seeing it this season. I did get some souvenirs as well. there is a button from the centennial in 1985, a laminated card listing his novels and plays, and some postcards. one of them had the postage stamp he is on, stamped like a 'first day cover' envelope. I am trying to think of what I learned from the tour, though there was mention of a stepmom that was an influence and it reminded me of what I had read about Abraham Lincoln. and I found out he had plenty of novels that I hadn't heard of. looking at the card I said I knew most of them from 'main street' (1920) to 'dodsworth' (1929) and that was about it. and I understood he got the nobel proze shortly after this time, in 1930. I got pictures of other things in town, like the movie theater, and a bar that had the front end of a car sticking out above the front door. I spoke with the man who was in front of the bar for a little while, a patron. I had lunch at the casey's convenience store, a slice if pizza and a bottle of tea, before I did the tour. then after it my last stop before leaving town was the holiday gas station, for an ice cream sandwich. another patron in the bathroom there spoke of getting treatment for cancer. I was tired on the drive home, but I made it fine. late in the evening I went to a comedy show, small world is the show runner. I got the 'how right I was' feeling early on in the show, when the heard the jukebox on the upper level playing 'say it aint so' by weezer. after the show ended I liked hearing 'time of your life' (good riddance) by green day.

hunger strike, temple of the dog

I loved going to the st. paul saints baseball game tonight, as they played music from 'grunge era'. during the fireworks one of those was 'hunger strike' by temple of the dog, which had members of various bands. I knew it as having chris cornell from soundgarden and eddie vedder from pearl jam, there is mention of mother love bone as well, a forerunner of pearl jam. I liked the video, it shows cornell, and then vedder, singing by themselves, with vedder in the grass. then scenes change fairly quickly, with the band playing on a beach and other views. memorable is the line 'I don't mind stealing bread from the mouths of decadents'.
   the saints played the Lincoln (Nebr.) Saltdogs, and lost to Lincoln 5-2. the saints never led in this one, though they tied it twice. I liked walking around the stadium for a while after I arrived on the shuttle from gabe's bar. I use this shuttle less often since the saints moved from midway stadium to CHS field, but I still like using it once a season since I got to know the shuttle driver a little. it was crowded on this little bus, I was standing both times but I didn't mind, I just wanted to get somewhere. and when I got back to gabe's bar I had a bottle of grain belt beer and then I left, as I wanted some airline miles and this establishment is on the 'dining for miles' program. sadly I had to deal with some annoying people near my seat. one lady kept picking on a 'special needs' man and I wanted to say and do something, but what? I thought about doing something extreme but I didn't want to get ejected. I liked talking to this man throughout the game, he really liked the fireworks.
   it was hard to keep up with all of the music I was hearing but, as expected, it was a reminder of my college days in iowa city. 'dummy pictures' of the opposing team members on the big video board happened to be members of the band nirvana, and just before the fireworks the team showed a video inspired by their song 'smells like teen spirit'. like many people, now when I think of this song I am just as likely to think of the weird al yankovic parody, 'smells like nirvana'. dick van patten was in the video, for the parody. it reminded me how I have the movies 'singles' and 'hype!', about the grunge era, the former on DVD and the latter on VHS. I also have the 'singles' movie soundtrack. I knew one of my favorite bands, smashing pumpkins, had a song on the soundtrack and nirvana did not, even though the pumpkins are a Chicago band and not considered to be 'grunge'. during the fireworks I heard 'teen spirit' by nirvana, the aforementioned 'hunger strike', 'man in the box' by alice in chains, and 'evenflow' by pearl jam. there was trivia questions at one point between innings, and I liked seeing the images that were rebuses. one had 'alice in chains' as alice in wonderland. another was stone temple pilots, not a seattle band, although I have two of their CDs and I liked hearing 'interstate love song' during the game as well. actually, grunge went back a little farther for me. 'teen spirit' was a hit on MTV when I was a senior in high school. then a year later, pearl jam was a big thing, and I was at college in iowa city by then. and after that, smashing pumpkins. I liked being able to see pearl jam in concert twice, both times at alpine valley, WI, in 1998 and 2003. it also meant sharing the story about renting a car to get there as I had just moved from iowa to suburban Chicago, and my car had just broken down. I even heard a red hot chili peppers song, 'give it away', although the peppers were around before the grunge era, having been in the movie 'tough guys' back in 1986. I also mentioned Green Day, which is from that era, although not from Seattle and actually punk.
   during my lunchtime I went to a nearby building and got a haircut, by a barber that is also at the saints games. first time I had been in the building, when I walk in the skyway I am usually going the other direction, as the shop is in the degree of honor building. the workday was an easier one as expected, low volume on not just the payoff report but also the new titles and settlement letters.

minnesota territorial pioneers

I went to the Minnesota state fair today and saw something I hadn't before, a building for an organization called the Minnesota territorial pioneers. I bought a paul bunyan postcard there and liked seeing a display about prominent citizens in st. paul in the 19th century, kind of on a small chalkboard. I said it explained some of the street names in the town, like larpenteur, goodhue, and rice. as usual I had a pork chop on a stick, I did this shortly after arrival at 2pm. also had an ice cream cone, a ride on the carpet slide, a box of popcorn, and some root beer. I walked around pretty much the entire fairgrounds, and I liked seeing the artwork in the fine arts building. I voted for the one of the intersection of university and snelling, showing light rail, a book shop, and the mcdonald's. also liked a parody of grant wood's 'American gothic', in another building. there was another photo from kemps ice cream, with the cow 'photo bombing' me, and the newspaper museum.
  in the evening I went to CHS field and saw the st. paul saints baseball game, it was german night. great to see a fellow comic there performing, the Philadelphia native. the saints beat Winnipeg 1-0. it was scoreless for a while, then an intentional walk loaded the bases in the 9th. a sacrifice fly drove home the winning run for the saints, so it was in 'walk off' fashion. there was a celebration after it on the field by the players, and the video board said it clinched the playoffs for the saints. I also have a ticket for the Friday game, but a different opponent.